The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: geno57 on June 01, 2008, 12:16:35 PM
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L.A.'s fire chief just told reporters about this. It's going to be a very costly, tragic blaze. Wonder if/what/how much GS video was stored there?
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I hope no one was injured...or worse.
But what game show could be stored there anyway?
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The first thing that comes to mind is some Nickelodeon shows. Maybe Family Double Dare, etc. I imagine the loss of game show history will be pretty minimal.
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According to the article currently up on Yahoo!, there were duplicates of the videos stored elsewhere, anyway.
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[quote name=\'geno57\' post=\'187198\' date=\'Jun 1 2008, 09:16 AM\']
... Wonder if/what/how much GS video was stored there?
[/quote]
Likely none. But I can only HOPE the master for my appearance on "Face The Music" was there!
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'187209\' date=\'Jun 1 2008, 12:20 PM\']
Likely none. But I can only HOPE the master for my appearance on "Face The Music" was there!
Randy
tvrandywest.com
[/quote]
You know Sandy Frank is chomping at the bit to rerun that series again... :-)
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"Universal CEO Ron Meyer said that backups and copies exist of all of those films and although it would be a lot of work, nothing important will be lost." - Source (http://\"http://micechat.com/2008/06/universal-studios-fire-kong-back-to-the-future-courthouse-destroyed/\")
Don't know how this will affect the other TV tapings they have.
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Nickelodeons shows were shot at Universal Studios in Florida...so, I dont think they would be sitting in CA.
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I hear some of the backlot was destroyed, specifically Tenement Row which served as the exterior of Abbot and Costello's brownstone, and even some of Sting Alley. Any link to post-fire photos will be appreciated.
Add this to the 1980s fire that took out some of the classic backlot at Paramount, and the fire a few years ago at 1040 Las Palmas that took out film storage.
>> Here are the photos (http://\"http://news.aol.com/story/_a/blaze-erupts-on-universal-studios-lot/20080601095209990001?icid=1615934834x1203357897x1200309557\"). Just a lotta smoke without a clear sense of what was lost. It looks like Courthouse Square and the best known parts of the backlot are standing, but we'll see.
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' post=\'187225\' date=\'Jun 1 2008, 06:03 PM\']
>> Here are the photos (http://\"http://news.aol.com/story/_a/blaze-erupts-on-universal-studios-lot/20080601095209990001?icid=1615934834x1203357897x1200309557\"). Just a lotta smoke without a clear sense of what was lost. It looks like Courthouse Square and the best known parts of the backlot are standing, but we'll see.
[/quote]
Unfortunately, the photos are no longer accessible, according to the AOL error message.
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[quote name=\'geno57\' post=\'187198\' date=\'Jun 1 2008, 12:16 PM\']
...Wonder if/what/how much GS video was stored there?
[/quote]
Don Adams' Screen Test ? Hope they saved dupes of those; I'd love to see it again.
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Kind of a bad news/good news thing, I guess:
Physically, the fire destroyed all of the metro sets (NY Street, New England Street, Brownstone Street, "Sting Alley") save for the North and Eastern sides of "Courthouse Square" (Hill Valley from Back to the Future). The TV production most directly affected by it is "Ghost Whisperer" as they had turned the square into the town center of Grandview for the show. A lot of films had used those sets in the past few months.
As for film/video...can't say directly, but bear in mind that most shows under the NBC/Universal banner fell closer to the Blind Date type reality than outright game shows...that being said, I don't know off hand what, if any, GS tapes were directly affected.
The good news, if any, is that the fire was limited to only the metro area sets of the backlot and did not jump over to the western sets of "Six Points Texas" or "Lil Europe"...and was way away from Wisteria Lane (you can all exhale now... :) ) Also, from what I have heard, despite the size of the fire, which local residents called the worst they had seen, at last count I heard it was 9 firefighters who were treated for minor injuries (don't quote me on specifics, allow for wiggle room on numbers and qualifiers).
The amazing thing to see from the bridge that crossed from the park to the tram queue area was how total the ruin was of those buildings, yet to see the four walls that surrounded the King Kong attraction standing, with nothing existing inside or on top. If you want to see photos, latimes.com has a good set of pics as does knbc.com
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The studios have been storing their archives elsewhere (mostly the Midwest, IIRC) for decades now, for insurance reasons (remember that southern California is in possible earthquake territory). That material is safe and sound.
The more current problem is that NBCU has a potential revenue loss in not just production facilities, but in one of southern California's top tourist attractions.
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[quote name=\'uncamark\' post=\'187422\' date=\'Jun 3 2008, 11:42 AM\']
The studios have been storing their archives elsewhere (mostly the Midwest, IIRC) for decades now, for insurance reasons (remember that southern California is in possible earthquake territory). That material is safe and sound.
[/quote]
I've heard that a lot of material is stored here in Kansas City, in a huge facility that was built underground by the late Chiefs football owner Lamar Hunt. Would love to get a tour of that place!
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I have a report of a game show (at least one that is listed in the Encyclopedia) potentially wiped out by the fire. Bear in mind, what's been lost is Universal's entire archive of video tape masters, and while yes, their filmed shows survive in their original negatives, it's now becoming clear that shows shot on videotape and specials on videotape have been put at risk unless a duplicate was out there. This is the report from a post on Home Theater Forum.
"I am talking to some of my inside sources and this is way worse than Universal is telling anyone. They are really spinning this big time. Anything that they had 2-inch masters on, those are gone forever. For instance, the show Don Adams Screen Test, gone. Any specials, such as the Herb Alpert one, that they had a 2-inch tape on, gone. As for filmed TV shows, all of the transferred videotape masters are gone. Yes, they still have the original film elements but considering their astronomical in-house costs, are they really going to bother with many of these shows? I doubt it. So companies that are relying on existing tapes for their releases like Shout, Timeless and Arts Alliance could be out of luck."
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Apparently some of their music master tapes were also lost. Yet it's a little difficult to really tell what was salvaged and what wasn't.
Story and comments here. (http://\"http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/update-universal-fire-burns-music-history/\")
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http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5426/ba...boblargeet0.gif (http://\"http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5426/bagdadboblargeet0.gif\")
"Nothing was lost, everything is fine!"
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[quote name=\'Eric Paddon\' post=\'187490\' date=\'Jun 4 2008, 11:26 AM\']
I have a report of a game show (at least one that is listed in the Encyclopedia) potentially wiped out by the fire.
...
Anything that they had 2-inch masters on, those are gone forever. For instance, the show Don Adams Screen Test, gone.
[/quote]
Fortunately for us, most of the run of this program is held at UCLA (http://\"http://cinema.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=Don+Adams&SL=None&Search_Code=FTIT&PID=vynVfzP1vdmCN73IEhGZC7vXMT&SEQ=20080604085759&CNT=50&HIST=1\")
In another example of "what they didn't say", alt.movies.silent (among others) is reporting that the library of prints used for film bookings was also destroyed in the fire. This also has consequences, as it is questionable how many of these films Universal will bother to reprint.
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There probably wasn't a chance DAST would have ever seen the light of day again even if the fire had not occurred, though occassionally clips would turn up on "Foul-Ups, Bleeps and Blunders," which I guess would now be gone as well.
MCA also distributed Hackett's YBYL and the "competition" show "Puttin on the Hits.". The only other game show of the "golden-age" that I can think of which MCA had a hand in was "The Big Showdown," which was a New York show, and presumably was long gone shortly after airing.
EDIT: Just saw RMF's post. DAST is safe for now, though I'm not holding my breath for a DVD set.
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[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'187494\' date=\'Jun 4 2008, 11:11 AM\']
MCA also distributed the "competition" show "Puttin on the Hits.".[/quote]
Wouldn't Dick Clark have those masters in his library, since his company produced it?
/Not that I really care to see Allen Fawcett again.
//Farrah Fawcett, now you're talkin'.
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One other MCA show I forgot "Pop N Rocker"
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[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'187494\' date=\'Jun 4 2008, 09:11 AM\']
There probably wasn't a chance DAST would have ever seen the light of day again even if the fire had not occurred, though occassionally clips would turn up on "Foul-Ups, Bleeps and Blunders," which I guess would now be gone as well. [/quote]
See! So this whole thing isn't *all* bad.
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That's good to know another set existed at UCLA. And it's a reminder of how the need for back-up is so important in preserving film and TV from the most obscure to the most famous.
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As another addendum involving Don Adams' Screen Test, the Paley Center has some material from this program as well, but, from viewing an example, it appears that it is "highlights" from the "screen tests" rather than complete programs.
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More info on what was lost:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-univ...0,5996006.story (http://\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-universal4-2008jun04,0,5996006.story\")
Randy
tvrandywest.com
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The thing you have to remember about Don Adams' Screen Test is that it was done in the age before VCRs became commonplace, and the movies became commonplace along with them. Remember children, back then, only a handful of very very good movies (and a lot of very very bad ones) turned up on television. Films were still special then because they weren't as accessible (no one said "I'll wait for the video"), and having ordinary people elaborately recreate classic scenes was a pretty wacky novelty of an idea.
Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']
The thing you have to remember about Don Adams' Screen Test is that it was done in the age before VCRs became commonplace, and the movies became commonplace along with them. Remember children, back then, only a handful of very very good movies (and a lot of very very bad ones) turned up on television. Films were still special then because they weren't as accessible (no one said "I'll wait for the video"), and having ordinary people elaborately recreate classic scenes was a pretty wacky novelty of an idea.
Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.
[/quote]
Along with that, In writing various places about "classic TV"..It amazes me that from the 1950's-1980's, when most local TV stations aired at least one film in a local movie package per day..(With titles like The Early Show, Movie 5 and the like).The sheer volume of movies there were available then..As Matt said, mostly mediocre to bad ones..I am not young (50)..But it interests me how many movies I've never heard of were on local TV then..
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One of my hobbies is to try to piece together which films belonged to which syndication packages (so I have a life beyond game shows!) Before MCA bought Universal they had acquired the 700+ title pre-48 Paramount feature library for syndication, since the big studios wanted nothing to do with television syndication for fear of a backlash from theater owners. The 35mm duplicates of those films were most likely to have been affected by the fire If anybody would like me to continue, just reply in the affirmative.
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']
The thing you have to remember about Don Adams' Screen Test is that it was done in the age before VCRs became commonplace, and the movies became commonplace along with them. Remember children, back then, only a handful of very very good movies (and a lot of very very bad ones) turned up on television. Films were still special then because they weren't as accessible (no one said "I'll wait for the video"), and having ordinary people elaborately recreate classic scenes was a pretty wacky novelty of an idea.
Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.
[/quote]
Thanks for giving me the image of Scheky Greene's yellow pants again...
--Mike
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[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'187886\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 05:40 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.[/quote]Thanks for giving me the image of Scheky Greene's yellow pants again...[/quote]
But see, I managed to write my post without recalling Shecky Greene's yellow pants, an image I had successfully managed to repress. So whose fault is it really?
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187893\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 06:44 PM\']
[quote name=\'mmb5\' post=\'187886\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 05:40 PM\'][quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187860\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 01:30 PM\']Having said that, several episodes are available for viewing at UCLA, and they're pretty painful to watch.[/quote]Thanks for giving me the image of Scheky Greene's yellow pants again...[/quote]
But see, I managed to write my post without recalling Shecky Greene's yellow pants, an image I had successfully managed to repress. So whose fault is it really?
[/quote]
Neither of you two gentlemen saw Loretta Swit's odd hair/makeup job, did you?
/I've seen about ten minutes of this program
//That was all there was on the tape.
///I do not wish to see any more.
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[quote name=\'RMF\' post=\'187906\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 09:44 PM\']Neither of you two gentlemen saw Loretta Swit's odd hair/makeup job, did you?[/quote]
Saw it for years on M*A*S*H.
You thinking of something else?
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[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' post=\'187909\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 10:53 PM\']
You thinking of something else?
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Just trying to see if I could turn this into one of you two freaking out over bad fashion decisions, and using one of the clips of the program I saw as a jumping point.
On a really off-topic point, but one you'd like: I'm having the Paley Center dub two episodes of that mysterious version of Information Please I mentioned a while back, and once they have been dubbed and once I've seen them, I plan to report it.
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[quote name=\'RMF\' post=\'187916\' date=\'Jun 10 2008, 11:14 PM\']
On a really off-topic point, but one you'd like: I'm having the Paley Center dub two episodes of that mysterious version of Information Please I mentioned a while back, and once they have been dubbed and once I've seen them, I plan to report it.[/quote]
EXcellent! I expect a full report, and we'll see how your information (please) stacks up with what's in the book. As I recall, you thought there might be some inconsistencies.